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Socialism takes the credit for China's economic strength

BEIJING–Outside on the crowded steps of the Great Hall of the People Friday, politician Zhang Caikui from Shandong province was hamming it up for the cameras with the practised touch of an experienced showman.

The cameramen knew it.

He knew it, too.

"The people will live a dignified life!" Zhang wailed, sounding like an evangelical preacher. "Their lives will get better and better! Premier Wen expressed exactly what the common people think!"

With each exclamation, Zhang cocked his head back and shook his thick head of hair for dramatic emphasis.

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It was a little piece of theatre.

But so too was what came before: Inside the hallowed confines of the cavernous Great Hall, beneath a dazzling, giant red star of the Communist Party, Premier Wen Jiabao was polished in what amounts to his annual state of the union address Friday.

It was theatre too, tightly choreographed and with a single, overarching message: China is strong and will keep getting stronger.

"No difficulties or obstacles can impede the course of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation," Wen proudly proclaimed.

The country's economy sailed through the most challenging year of the young millennium with a sizzling 8.7 per cent growth.

Wen said China would do it again in 2010: The economy would register at least 8 per cent growth this year, he promised.

The premier said it wasn't easy for the country to accomplish such achievements in the face of a devastating, global financial crisis.

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But he said that success had "boosted the confidence and pride of the people, strengthened the cohesion of the Chinese nation and raised China's international standing and influence."

Wen praised President Hu Jintao and the Communist Party for solid leadership. And he referred to "the incomparable superiority of the socialist system."

Previously, such claims have sounded like empty rhetoric.

This time, not so much.

While the world's industrialized nations are still trying to regain an even keel for their economies, China's ship of state is rigging up, ready to sail through another year.

That doesn't mean it would be without challenges, Wen warned. Recovery remains weak, risks haven't been eliminated and trade protectionism is rising. But China proved its mettle last year, he noted.

Delegates inside the Great Hall applauded.

China firmly remains an authoritarian state. But once a year the premier comes before the cameras at the National People's Congress to account for what the government has done and what it intends to do in the coming year. It's the highlight of China's political season.

But the NPC – and concurrently held meetings of an advisory body known as the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, with an additional 2,200 members – helps rally people to the party.

Thousands of delegates fly in to the capital, hotels are jammed, restaurant reservations are difficult to get and police flood the city.

Opening day of the NPC was marked, as always, by a military band, a choir and delegates from China's ethnic minorities wearing colourful traditional costumes.

This year state media reported a record 700,000-strong security detail on guard 24 hours a day – 100,000 more than last year.

No detail, no matter how small, was left untouched. The flying of toy planes and balloons, for example, has been banned from March 3 to March 15 – but unlike last year's celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic, kites and domestic pigeons are allowed.

Inside the Great Hall, consultative conference delegate Wu Hong from southeastern Zhejiang province said he concurred with Wen on the inherent strength of China's socialist system. "Especially in recent years when, as a country, we faced major events like the disastrous earthquake, the hosting of the Olympic Games, and the international financial crisis, that's when the binding strength of the socialist system can be clearly seen," he said.

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